Blame My Spam-Riddled Inbox If I’ve Been Ignoring You

A few dozen items in my paper inbox, tens of thousands in my spam-riddled email inbox. Photo by Barbara Newhall

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

It’s been kinda lonesome here lately at BarbaraFalconerNewhall.com. The Contact button has been right there at the top of my Home Page ready to accept messages from one and all. But nobody’s been clicking.

Or so I thought.

Turns out that message after message has been turned away by my server because of a spam-riddled inbox. High school friends who’ve googled me and discovered that I had a website. Loyal readers with something insightful to say. And even a colleague inviting me to talk to her writing class. Dozens of important messages have either been rejected or lost in a swamp of spam: 45,000 — count ’em, 45,000 — spam messages clogged my inbox, burying messages and preventing new ones from getting through.

Spam-Riddled No More

A phone call to my webmaster and — my spam-riddled inbox problem is solved. A vigilant spam catcher has been installed, and your messages will be reaching me just fine from now on. You’ll have to pass an are-you-human? test to prove that you’re not a robot; but you’re used to that by now.

Meanwhile, if you have tried in vain to contact me — my apologies. I’ll be doing better from now on.